


Feral

by Okami_no_fude



Series: Linked Universe oneshots [8]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, LU Weekly Prompt, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Parasites, Possession, Villain Week, mildly graphic descriptions of parasites
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 06:16:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20502260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okami_no_fude/pseuds/Okami_no_fude
Summary: It was just a regular scouting trip with two of his fellow heroes.He was not expecting Shadow Insects to appear, nor what happened after that.





	Feral

**Author's Note:**

> This is my contribution to the weekly prompt on the LU discord, which was Villain week, and had the what-if situation of one of the Links becoming evil.
> 
> There are some mildly disturbing portions but read at your own risk.
> 
> [Linked Universe](https://linkeduniverse.tumblr.com/) belongs to @jojo56830 on Tumblr  
Legend of Zelda belongs to Nintendo.

It was some regular scouting that they were doing, like what Twilight had been doing by himself for the longest time.

However, he was not alone this time. 

Ever since his secret of being Wolfie this whole time revealed (and getting an earful from everyone on how reckless he was on going by himself), he always had another hero to scout alongside him as they refused to let him go alone. Too dangerous for him, they insisted. He was thankful that the others did not seem to mind he had been keeping such an important ability as a secret, and showed understanding of his reasoning why he had done so. 

This time he was scouting with Warriors and Wind, the former stating that he needed to see Twilight in action when he was in wolf form, and the later merely wanting to come along. He did not really understand why Warriors wanted to see his combat style when he had fought with them as a wolf multiple times, but he gave a shrug before transforming into his wolf form and trotted ahead. 

It felt much more reassuring now he can go all out whenever he needed, and this also allowed him to practice on his combat skills as a wolf.

Everything seemed to be all in the clear before Twilight sniffed out something near the bushes.  
He had yet to encounter this scent on his journey before, but it held the hint of the reeking smell that all corrupted enemies they encountered had. He let out a low growl, hackles raised and alerting Warriors and Wind of a potential enemy nearby.

“Can you tell what the enemies are? And the number?” Warriors whispered as he slowly reached for his sword and shield, Wind doing the same as he faced his back toward them. 

Twilight shook his head and was preparing to transform so he could speak to them when he heard a faint, odd ringing sound.

Puffs of clouds magically appeared around them to reveal 7 colorfully robed creatures with bird beaks appeared, waving sticks at them.

“Guys duck!” Wind screamed out, bringing out his shield. Instinctively Twilight complied, the fireballs that were aimed at him barely missing. 

Warriors let out a curse as the fireballs sailed over him. “Wind what are they?!” 

“They are called Wizzrobes, and they usually take only two hits with an arrow! We need to aim for the yellow and red ones quickly, they can summon other enemies!” the youngest hero cried out, bringing his bow to aim at the nearest wizzrobe that was about to shoot at them again. 

  
Twilight quickly assessed the situation: there was one red-colored one, two yellow-colored ones, and 4 blue ones. All of them reeked out the corrupted blood that they have been seeing among the monsters they have encountered thus far. He decided to go after the red wizzrobe, and let out a loud howl before leaping, his jaws wide open and ready to tear through monster flesh. But before he managed to grab ahold of the jugular of the wizzrobe, it disappeared in front of him. Landing perfectly on his feet, the wolf hero scanned the area to look for the red wizzobe, but it was nowhere to be seen.

Not to be perturbed, Twilight quickly changed his target to blue ones so he could let his 2 companions focus on aiming the yellow ones. Quickly breaking into a sprint, he lunged toward the wizzrobe that had gotten a little too close to Wind for his comfort, closing his jaws around the enemy’s most vulnerable area with a loud and hard snap. Tossing the body and spitting out the blood from his maw as soon as he felt the wizzrobe die, he quickly lunged for another blue-robed wizzrobe that was about to attack Warriors who had landed a few arrows into the yellow wizzrobe and stopping it from clawing its wand arm. The wizzrobe let out a weird, low cry as he had hit it, and he quickly bit into the neck before it could disappear on him, sinking his fangs deep.

Before he could release his jaws from the now-dead wizzrobe, a high-pitched whining sound pierced his sensitive ears, making him whine in pain. 

Twilight’s fur stood on end when he heard buzzing noise right afterward.

Whipping toward the noise, he could not believe what his canine senses were telling him.   
It was a huge swarm of Shadow insects, something he hadn’t encountered in a long while.

And it was heading straight toward him, electricity cracking around them.

Leaping to the side, Twilight barely managed to dodge the oncoming swarm, giving out a small yelp as he felt the brush of electricity on his fur. Timing his attack, he closed his jaws on a few insects that had trailed behind the swarm, trying to lessen the number of bugs. Thankfully went down in one hit like they had during his journey of retrieving the tears of light that were stolen. 

What he wasn’t expecting was a stray fireball almost hitting his side, making him lose his focus on the swarm.

He gave a large yelp when a cloud of black obscured his view, the loud buzz of the insects’ wings assaulting his ears.  
He could barely hear the panicked voices of Wind and Warriors calling his name as a sudden wave of pain came over him. He felt like something was draining his power, slowly making him weak.

Twilight tried to hold on, but the pain was far too great for him, and he blacked out. 

\---

“...t... light….wa...up!”

Through the haze of the aching pain, the hero of Twilight could barely hear the worried voices of his companions. He then felt someone shaking his canine shoulders.

It took a while for him to register that the person who shaking him did not carry the scent of the sand and salty breeze of Wind, nor the scent of the masking sweet cologne of Warriors. 

It was the smell of the stormy air and the fresh wildflowers. 

Wild. 

Letting out a small whine, he pried his eyes opened to see his cub standing over him with a worried face.

When did the others arrive?

“Oh thank Hylia you are awake,” he let out a sigh of relief.” Do you remember what happened?”

He was a bit woozy, but Twilight was able to recall the fight he had alongside Warriors and Wind… wait, were they okay?

The wolf jumped up abruptly only to regret it soon afterward as he was hit with a wave of vertigo, and a dull itch on his neck.

He felt Wild put a hand on his shoulder.”Whoa take it easy, both Wind and Warriors are safe, just a singed hair or two,” Wild reassured him, gesturing toward the two heroes who were currently being looked at by Hyrule and Sky. Wild brought back his attention to him with a question. “However, they were saying something worrisome about what happened after you were unconscious, something about light energy being carried off, and Warriors was fretting about a sorceress?”

As soon as he felt the dizziness recede, Twilight tried to focus on his magic that allowed him to push the shadow magic out of his body and into the crystal so he could answer Wild’s question. 

He could not find the feeling.

_ ‘What in the-’ _

Twilight was confused. He usually has no problem in locating the specific magic that would allow him to shift between forms, but right now it felt like the Twili magic had obscured it under its inky depths.

Twilight began to lose his composure as he kept searching but could not find his trigger.  
What was going on?

And why was his neck a little itchy?

“Twilight!!”

The wolf hero was shaken out of his frantic thought at the loud call of his name.

His cub was peering at him with a worried expression. “Are you okay? Is there something wrong?”

_ ‘Yes!’ _ he barked out. _ ‘I can’t shift back!’ _

Wild maintained the confused face as if he did not say any-

_ ‘Of course, he doesn’t understand me, I’m a wolf right now for Hylia’s sake! How am I going to communicate with the others?’ _

“Hey Wild! Is Twilight okay?” He heard Legend call out. “He’s acting like a dog with fleas!”

Twilight growled. He did not need the comparison, thank you very much.

“I don’t know!” Wild hollered back. “He’s not shifting back for some reason!”

He barked twice and nodded fiercely at Wild’s statement to tell him that it was the exact predicament he found himself in, hoping that someone in their group would understand.

Thankfully Four who was ever so observant caught the meaning. “Uh, Wild? Twilight is nodding to your statement...Twilight, do you mean that you can’t shift back for some reason? Bark once for no, twice for yes please.”

Two barks were heard.

They were puzzled. “Have you ever had this problem before?

A slight tilt of the head, before a single bark.

“So you had a problem of not capable of shifting, but not like this situation?”

Twilight barked twice and nodded quite vigorously. He was glad that Four had a sharp mind for interpreting what he wanted to convey.

But it would be limited to yes or no questions, so how was he going to tell about how he can’t find the usual magic energy he uses to revert the transformation?

Thankfully that solution was brought to the table with another person’s item.

“Twilight can’t shift back?” a voice from behind him asked, making him almost jump.

It was his mentor, with the rest of the group behind him.

“Apparently so” Four confirmed. “But I don’t think we can get a cohesive answer from him if we can’t understand him.”

The eldest hero brought his hand to his chin.

“That is troublesome. But I may have a solution for that...” Time began digging through his bag.

Twilight’s ears perked up with that. Maybe it wasn’t hopeless for him to communicate with them.

What Time brought out was the Mask of truth, something he showed so long ago during one of their calm camp nights.

“This does allow me to hear the thoughts of animals as well, so let’s see if it works with this situation,” Time brought the mask to his face.

_ ‘Time? Can you understand me? Are Warriors and Wind okay?’ _Twilight barked out.

“Yes, I understand you and they are fine,” Time replied to his bark, gesturing to the two aforementioned heroes.

“It seems like it works. Now can you tell us why you can’t seem to shift back?”

Twilight shook his canine head. _ ‘I really don’t know why. All I can remember is being swarmed by the shadow insects before I lost consciousness. Can Wind or Warriors tell me what happened after that?’ _

Time relayed his question to the two, to which they complied.

“So we saw you get swarmed by the insects, we really had no idea how to get them off of you without accidentally hurting you,” Wind started first. “I thought of sending a fire arrow into the swarm, but I had no clue what would happen if I did.”

Warriors picked up after Wind. “I ordered Wind to try to blow the swarm away from you using the Wind Waker while I went for the Red Wizzrobe, but every time I tried to go for it, the other wizzrobes interfered.”

“Yeah, I managed to summon a cyclone and blew the swarm away from you, which at that point you were unconscious. I did shoot a few fire arrows after that to burn them. The swarm behaved rather strangely.”

“Strangely?”Time questioned, echoing his own. 

Wind nodded. “A bunch surged forward as if it was making a shield for something. I then realized there were 2 insects that were bigger than the rest that went back to the red wizzrobe, which wasn’t a wizzrobe anymore.”

“It’s most likely a dark copy of Cia,” Warriors spat out, “ and it left with a parting greeting: ‘you know where to look’ before leaving with the two bugs in a black portal.”

Twilight cocked his tilted his head to the side, pondering about the two shadow insects that had escaped with this Cia Warriors was mentioning. He knew that the shadow insects’ main ability is to carry the tears of light that they stole from the light spirit, but what if they were able to also rip it away from other beings? He did feel the draining sensation when he was attacked by the insects…

_ “I think I can guess why I can’t change back…” _

“Oh? You do?”

He nodded._ “Yeah, I think it’s because of the bugs. They are called shadow insects, and I have dealt with them before. They are capable of carrying light essence that light spirits of my world have, but I’m beginning to think that’s not the only ability that they have…” _

Time picked up his train of thought. “So those shadow insects can carry light energy, and you think they stole yours too?”

_ “That’s my guess.” _

Four frowned. “So the light energy of your Twili magic controls your transformations?”  
That was a very good question. He never really thought about the details of Twili magic except for the fact that it had been integrated to his very being during his journey. He had never used magic beforehand, so his knowledge of the arcane arts was very little. Come to think of it, why was he able to utilize the crystal without any outside help from Twili magic practitioners, or without the Master Sword? 

  
Then it hit him. The Sols. 

He had obtained the power of the sols when he had brought the two Sol’s away from Zant’s clutches and to the pedestals in the front of the Palace of Twilight. Could it be that energy that was allowing him to control his transformation?

If that was so…

“In that case,” Warriors’ sharp, authoritative voice cut through his ponderings, bringing his and the other’s attention to him. “We need to get the light energy back from Cia then. We may be playing into her hands if we go, but we can’t have Twilight stuck as a wolf!” 

The others muttered their agreement, him offering two barks as well.

Making sure that everyone was fine and ready, they began traveling toward the place where he called the Temple of Souls (“I know where Cia would be, but be prepared to be creeped out, she is _ obsessed _with the Hero’s Spirit”).

As they headed out, Twilight rolled his neck as much as he could. He hoped that the slight itch on his neck would subside soon.

By the time that they had arrived at the Temple, it was nearly dusk, and they came to a mutual agreement that it was too risky to fight a strong enemy at night time, when any potential monsters that the sorceress may summon be powered up in the night time, and the fact that they had been traveling the rest of the afternoon, they were tired. The heroes needed to be well-rested by the time they fight Cia. As such, they made camp at the nearby forest to hide from any monster’s view. 

Twilight had been ill at ease. It never crossed his mind that the sols may have been playing a part in his transformations. And now he also noticed something else. 

His inner wolf was being far more aggressive than usual, more than he was comfortable with. 

At first, the wolf kept growling in an incomprehensive way, but as the night drew closer, the more it became louder and feral.

** _‘Rip,’_ **

_ ‘no,’ _ ** **

** _‘Claw,’_ **

_ ‘Stop,’ _

** _‘Tear apart enemies!’_ **

_ ‘Shut up!!!’ _

His wolf went quiet with his angry roar, but he could still feel him simmering under, not satisfied with a lack of battles.

Was his inner self always this aggressive?

A little worried, Twilight quietly took some distance from the rest of the group, letting them know to be careful of waking him up as his wolf was ‘a little skittish’ before he settled in for the night.

He could not sleep a single wink.

\---

“Alright, we are probably going to have to deal with this being a trap, so we need to expect the worst. No matter what, do not get trapped into a room by yourself,” Warriors started the planning session the next morning with those words, with a hint of...embarrassment? “Cia is capable of opening up these portals called the Gates of Time which can summon a lot of different foes from different eras. She is also capable of summoning dark versions of us. We would probably need to have most of us go against any monsters she may summon, while 2 people would need to engage her in combat.”

There was a small pause as everyone digested this info. 

“So, who is going to be the ones fighting the sorceress?” Hyrule asked.

“If what Warriors said about this sorceress’ ability is true, would it not be better to be flexible about who should fight her?” Legend, the most seasoned adventurer among them suggested.

‘Legend has a point,’ Twilight thought as Warriors nodded his head in agreement.

“That is true. It would really depend on the situation, but there should be a few people designated to certain tasks,” the tactician mused. 

Sky spoke up. “In that case, I think it would be best if Warriors stick to fighting the sorceress, as he has crossed paths with her before, and knows how to deal with her.”

It was a sound suggestion.

Warriors hummed in agreement. “Okay, so I lead the fight with Cia, and depending on the situation I would call on one or two of you to aid me. Time, may I ask you to be the leader for the other group when she summons other monsters?” he asked.

Time nodded his assent.

“Alright, be flexible guys. Let’s move out!”

It was to no surprise to the group of heroes that they had a welcoming party of monsters waiting in the creepy temple (Twilight did his best to ignore the statue of the wolf that looked just like him) but thankfully none of them were infected with the black substance, so they tore through the enemies with relative ease. He was personally glad that he was able to fight some enemies because it had allowed him to satisfy his inner wolf, quelling his thoughts.

However when the sorceress came into the fray that was when everything went pear-shaped.

Twilight had swiveled his head when he had heard the loud clack of heels walking on the tiles.

It was a voluptuous female figure with a curious mask obscuring her face sauntering up to the group of heroes. Under her mask Twilight could spy a creepy grin forming.

“Hello and welcome, dear heroes,” she said in a coy voice.  
All of the heroes took battle-ready stances, as Warriors let out a low growl. “Cia.”

Twilight mimicked the notion, baring his fangs at the magic user.

“What are you playing at Cia?! What is it that you want to achieve by taking the light energy of Twilight’s wolf transformation magic?!”

It was unsettling to hear her chuckle lowly.

“Oh, you hadn’t figured out? What a pity. You know how much I adore the spirit of the hero and my wish to make you subservient, but I thought of also doing something else when I noticed that multiple reincarnations of the heroes are together: how would you react if one of suddenly acting out of character?” she said, raising her right arm.

_ ‘Wait, wha-’ _

With the sound of snapping fingers, Twilight let out a pained howl as strong electrical currents shot down from his neck that had been itching earlier until now.

He couldn’t hold on.

His vision went black.

\---

Warriors did not like this situation at all.

The fact that Cia had a hand in this predicament was already unsettling him. While he may have defeated her before, she was powerful in her own right, and very crafty as well. The captain knew that this ploy reeked of it being a trap, but they had no choice but to walk in it to help out Twilight, his comrade, his _ family _. 

So when Cia came confidently walking out as she had already won, Warriors could not help but tense up. 

When Cia had uttered those words, his blood turned into ice.

_ ‘No-’ _

_   
_His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a loud howl that sounded very painful from Twilight.

All of the heroes snapped their necks toward the wolf hero as his howls echoed throughout the temple, chills going through their spines. They could see sparks of electricity running throughout the wolf’s’ body, which was slowly turning darker and darker. Wisps of black smoke began to appear around him, and Warriors could hear the pained howl morph into something else. 

Something far more sinister, and feral.

The wolf suddenly turned around toward them, baring his fangs and snarling as he glared at the group of heroes.

His eyes were no longer the sapphire blue, but crimson red.

Markings in the color of blood appeared all over the wolf body, pulsing with a strange energy, with the markings being concentrated at the neck and the back areas. Black tendrils of energy enveloped the wolf, making his red markings stand out in the inky darkness.

Cia leveled her scepter at the shocked group.

“Release your inner beast, Hero of Twilight.”

The shadow wolf lunged with a howl.

  


Legend let out a curse as he complied with Warriors’ panicked “Get Back,” bringing up his shield.

As a hero who has a lot of magical items under his belt, one could say he was attuned magical energies if he focuses on it. He was not as sensitive as his successor, but he can tell apart of the attributes of the magic. The night before he had kept an eye on Twilight, a bit worried as the magic he sensed was a lot darker than before, and it progressively got darker as the night drew closer. It did draw back a little when the sun came out, so Legend had chalked it up to the Twili magic being stronger at dusk and night time. However it did not seem to be the case, as Twilight was seemingly taken over by the darkness, his magical signature feeling pure black and evil. 

“Twilight! Please snap out of it!” Legend heard Wild scream as he had to dodge out of the way of the wolf, shock and desperation coloring his voice.

“It’s no use Wild!” Legend yelled at the scarred hero. “He’s most likely possessed or controlled by something or someone, and can’t control his actions!” He hated dealing with possession, and the hero of legend had hoped he would not encounter these kinds of situations anymore. It seemed that the goddesses were not with them on this. The fact it was one of his comrades who was possessed made him grit his teeth with frustration. 

“No, not again...” he heard someone quietly mutter to his left, making him glance toward that side. 

It was Wind, his face pale and eyes wide as he stared at the feral wolf. He was shaking.

  


Wind wasn’t expecting this. While he knew that Warriors had said that they needed to expect the worst, but this was something he wasn’t expecting- no, more like did not want to even think that it would happen. It was Linebeck all over again, but this time he did not have the help of Ciela who was able to pinpoint the weakness of Bellum and helped him free his traveling companion. This time it was an unknown assailant possessing and controlling Twilight, and he knew they couldn’t hit him with anything dangerous as unlike Linebeck, Twilight did not seem to be wearing any armor, meaning that one wrong move from their side could mean death for the wolf hero. 

Was there some sort of hint that pointed toward what they could do to help Twilight be released from whatever was controlling him?

“Wind! Heads up!”

The youngest hero jolted his head up at the call from Four to see the shadow wolf bounding towards him, teeth bared. 

Crap, he doesn’t have the time to dodge the incoming wolf, nor he thought he would have the strength to shield the wolf’s rush attack without getting knocked over!

“Shit, Wind!”

Before the wolf could reach his destination, Wind felt someone ram him into him and grabbing him as they rolled away safely from the oncoming wolf.

Wind winced, his side smarting as he had hit the floor hard. “Thanks Legend,” he gasped out the hero who was sprawled next to him.

Legend gave a grimace as he stood up. “We need to figure out how to fight him without hurting him too much, while also dealing with that sorceress. I bet we can help Twilight if we defeat her.”

Wind understood where Legend was coming from. It seems that this was not his first run in dealing with possession. “True, but how are we going to keep Twilight at bay without hurting him too much? We cannot really afford to use our swords willy-nilly either.”

“Does Warriors have any idea how to deal with it?’

The duo looked toward their tactician, who seemed to be a bit shocked at the situation at hand, but as soon he saw the others looking at him, he steeled his nerves.”Alright, Sky with me! We need to defeat Cia as soon as possible! The rest of you guys, try to figure out if there is something besides the sorceress that is causing the possession!”

  


Sky gritted teeth as he followed Warriors’ lead and rushed toward Cia. He knew how resourceful the other heroes could be, but as far as he could see, Cia was giving no mercy toward them. They were already tired of fighting against the hordes of enemies from before so Sky knew that he had to end this quickly.

“Cia!” Warriors snarled out. “Cease this at once, or else I won’t be merciful as we beat you into the ground!”

  
The dark sorceress was unperturbed at the captain’s declaration. “Oh? So you two are going to dance with me? Such a spoilsport, would you not let me enjoy this entertainment a bit more?”

Within him, Sky felt unbridled fury bubble up at the sorceress’s words. She possess and controls one of his _ family _ and send him to hurt others against his will, and she thinks it as _ entertainment?! _

The first hero from the sky slowly unsheathed the Master Sword from its scabbard. The blade of evil’s bane was shining brightly as if the spirit of the master sword was expressing her anger as well.   
“We may have never met before, sorceress,” Sky stated quietly as he leveled his sword toward her. “But with that statement, you would have wished that it stayed that way when I am through with you!”

“Oh aren’t you a scary boy,” she mocked back at him, making him glare at her. She lifted her scepter up, summoning up two purple gates and bringing two dark versions of the heroes before pointing at him.  
“Let’s see if you can back up your words, Chosen Hero!”

\---

Hyrule was panting as he managed to dodge the incoming attack of their corrupted comrade. He knew that something was off with Twilight’s magical signature when it felt much darker than before. He had wished he expressed his concern earlier. 

He winced a bit as he brought his left hand to his right arm. The shadow wolf’s claws managed to clip him earlier, and his right arm was bleeding. Thankfully it was shallow enough, but it was still painful. 

Hyrule looked around to see that his fellow heroes weren’t having the best of time either. Four had been sent flying by the wolf’s collision and was sporting a cut on his forehead, Legend had hissed in pain when he put his weight on his right leg due to getting it nicked, while both Wild and Wind had been clawed on their sword arm respectively, which hindered them quite a bit. The only one who was relatively unscathed was Time, but he suspected as much when he was the only one who wore full armor.

The shadow wolf, on the other hand, seemed to be fine, as the tendrils of dark magic seemed to coat the wolf and deflect their blunt attacks. When it had lunged toward Four and pinned him, Wind had brought out a hammer that was far bigger than himself and whacked the wolf right in the side, sending him flying. The wolf did not flinch once as it recovered and lunged for the offending hero but had to dodge an incoming ice arrow from Wild, and his magic boomerang.

Hyrule suddenly tensed up as he felt dark magic building up within the shadow wolf. He tried to yell out a warning to get back from the wolf, but he was too late.

A circular area of black crackling energy sprang out from the wolf, catching everyone and freezing them in place. _ ‘Binding magic? When did Twilight have this ability? Or is it something else?’ _Hyrule wanted to scream as he felt crackling orange energy holding him and the others in place.

“Shit what is this?! I can’t move!” he heard Legend curse out, the others also expressing their surprise and frustration.

“Hyrule!” He heard Wild scream out his name.

Hyrule saw what caused Wild to cry out. 

The wolf was looking at him, legs tense and ready to spring forward. He could see the glint of bared white fangs.

Crap.

He shut his eyes and muttered a spell as the wolf lunged, hoping that the shield spell would help lessen the amount of pain that he was sure that would come.

Instead of the ripping pain that he was expecting, he was tackled hard in the chest and flung backward.

“Hyrule, you okay?” He heard Wild run up to him and help him up from where he landed. 

He assured he was fine, but he was confused. “He did not bite me?”

Wild shook his head. “He closed his mouth at the last moment and lowered his head.” 

A snarl that was mixed with a whine was heard where Hyrule had been standing, making the duo look toward the area.

The wolf was shaking his whole body, like how a dog does when getting off water from his body.

As if he was trying to shake off the dark tendrils.

Hyrule could sense that the dark sinister magic being pushed and something was fighting from within.

The wolf’s eyes were flickering between red and blue. 

  


While Time looked calm on the outside, he was inwardly panicking at the situation. It was something he never wished to happen, but he was now fighting against his protégé who did not have control over his actions. His pup.

He did not want to fight and hurt his pup, as he was far more vulnerable as a wolf since he had no protection against any sharp weapons. He could only defend and do counter-attacks, which he had to be careful of how much strength he put in. He had wanted to cry out when Wind had smashed him away with a hammer, but the Hero of Time understood there was truly no choice but to do so, as Four had been in danger. He felt helpless when all of them were caught and paralyzed by the black field of dark Twili magic and the wolf had lunged at Hyrule.

But something odd happened. 

At the last second, the wolf’s gaping maw had snapped shut and he had head-butted instead of biting Hyrule, and releasing the magic that was pinning them all. 

While Wild had rushed toward Hyrule to check on him, he looked closer at the wolf to spy that his eyes were flickering between the menacing red and calm blue. He was snarling and whining at the same time, and the wolf was writhing.   
Was Twilight trying to fight back whatever was controlling him? 

Desperate to get some answers, he donned the Mask of Truth again to try and listen if Twilight was trying to say something.

_ “Let me go!” _

** _“̶̟͔̉̈̂R̴͔͓̋̒͘̚͝į̵̝̪͔͑͐͑̿̚͜p̸̛͎̩͆͛͛!̴̰̗̜̪̦̋̂̾̋̚ ̸͉̔̒͆͘T̴̹̟͍̔ͅe̸̢̱̣̐͛ą̷̛̛͓̼̜̒̈͑r̴̺̠̯̗͋̎̕!̸̘͓͔̺̀ ̵̢͔͇̎̾̈́̏͘K̸̮̤̜̫̿̒̈́͑͛i̴͉͇̩͠l̶̡̻̮̬̽̊͂l̷̳̦̣̪̦̈́̊͑!̶̺̂̕”̸̰̝͖̈́_ **

_ “Get out of my body!” _

** _“̸̣͓͙͔̪͍̠̉͌̿̇̀͝͝E̴̛̬͆̀̿̄͘ͅͅm̵̢̦̣̲͎̬͛̉͛̍͑̕b̷̜͉͗̓͊̍r̷̨̜͓̗̼͎͓̂a̶͔̥̦̅c̸͉͐̑̉̚͘ę̸̧̨̦͔̯̔͗ͅ ̴̞́̈į̸̰͈̬̺͙̉͝n̷̻̣̯̝̮̫̋n̷̨̮̫̼͇̿̽͐̕͜ȅ̴̞̰͎̼̼̫̬͊͒̈͝r̶̮̭̯̦͔̳̀͂͑͊̚ ̶̥̜͕͇̖̗̓̽̎͆b̴̛͔̻̤͚̌̿̕ę̴̨͇͕̳̓ͅą̴̳̥̜͎̊͜s̴̨̭͚͒̓̾̓̂ͅt̴͖͕̠͔̄!̵̪̺̞͍͓̐̑̅͜”̶̨̎_ **

_ “Begone parasite!” _

Parasite? Was there a parasite in or on him?

Time gritted his teeth as he took off the mask. He had an idea, but it was risky with the wolf moving around so much.

He had noticed earlier that the black tendrils had begun to appear on his back and near his neck, so he had a target as to where he needed to aim, but he needed to freeze him to prevent any more injuries being inflicted on the wolf.

Wait.

Freeze an enemy’s movement.

Wild and his Sheikah runes.

  


“Wild! Freeze Twilight with a stasis rune!! Now!”

Wild looked surprised, but he complied and aimed his Sheikah slate at the snarling wolf. Time could visibly see the yellow tint of light appear as the wolf had frozen mid-snarl, and as soon as he saw it, he released a Light arrow, ignoring the multiple cries of disbelief.

It barely missed the wolf, the streak of golden light shoot right over the wolf’s neck and piercing through the black tendrils.

_ It _let out a shriek at the same time the wolf let out a howl as soon as he was free from the stasis rune, the black tendrils retreating. 

Multiple gasps could be heard as they saw his back.

Wild was stunned when Time had ordered him to use the stasis rune of the wolf and proceeded to shoot a bright yellow arrow emitting holy light, but he had gasped in horror when the black tendrils recede to reveal something truly gruesome and terrifying.

On the back of the neck, they could see there was a pair of bug wings attached to a huge gross bug.

_ And it was half-buried under the wolf’s skin. He could visibly see writhing lines bulging under his skin. _

Wild wanted to throw up.

He could visibly see the others react the same way. Wind was holding his hand to his mouth, Legend looked a little green, Four’s eyes were wide, Time was pale, and Hyrule was averting his eyes as he was trying not to retch. 

“Oh Hylia, we need to get it off of him!” He could not stand to see his poor mentor suffer in such a gruesome way any longer.

“But how?” Hyrule asked. “It’s on his neck, and if we aren’t careful we could very much cripple or even kill Twilight!” 

That was the problem. Observing the parasite, he could tell that it was controlling Twilight through the nerves of his body with electrical currents, seeing as it was occasionally sparking with electricity. If they were not careful, the nerves would be damaged as well. 

It was when Four spoke up. 

“The light arrow that Time shot was effective to clear the dark tendrils, do you think if we directly hit it…?”

He had a point but there was one problem. “Shooting it is a bit risky as even I won’t be able to control how fast it would travel and how strong it would be to only pierce the bug.”

“Then we directly stab it.”

  


Four was horrified to see such an abomination stuck on Twilight, but he was also glad to learn the culprit of this whole mess. Vio had analyzed the situation, and he found it that it was unlikely Cia that was controlling him, as he risked a glance to see Cia being backed in a corner by Sky while Warriors was fighting 2 dark links at once and winning. Usually, when people are under control the controller needed to have eye contact or physical contact, but Cia did not have either, so he deduced that it was something else.

Now that they knew what it was, he could quickly devise a solution. Wild showed hesitation about shooting at Twilight, and he knew that Wild was not capable of using the light arrow, nor did he trust himself to only hurt the bug and not Twilight, so the only way he could think was to directly stab it. Four saw Wild flinch a little at the concept of accidentally hurting Twilight, and he understood this. However, they were on a time limit. Too much exposure to electricity would definitely damage the nerves even more.

“Guys, we need to end this quick. I will do the deed. I’m fast and nimble enough to get on him, but we need to freeze him so I don’t hit somewhere I am not supposed to.”

While he knew there were others capable of using light arrows or any equivalent holy arrows, he volunteered to be the one to do the precise procedure as he could clearly see Wind was shaken with this whole ordeal, Legend was limping, and Time had an anguished look in his eye. There can’t be any hesitation when doing this.

He also wanted to spare the others of feeling the guilt if they do fail to kill only the parasite.

He looked back to where the wolf was and was alarmed that there were less visible parts of the insect.

There was no time to lose.

“Time!”

Four saw that Time understood the urgency of his voice, and nodded. 

“All of you who have ice arrows, freeze his feet! We need to have him be still! Four, I leave this task to you.”

Four nodded solemnly as he drew out a light arrow, mentally readying himself.

The chilly blue Ice magic wielded by various heroes shot toward the wolf who was beginning to growl ferally at them again. The wolf managed to dodge the first two, but the last arrow from Time hit its target and froze the wolf’s hind legs. More came to freeze his front legs, rendering the wolf immobile.

_ ‘Now!’ _

Four quickly ran towards the wolf, arrow in his hand emitting bright light. Without any hesitation, Four plunged the light arrow right into the gross bug’s visible body.

An unholy shriek echoed throughout the room as black tendrils started gushing out from the back of the wolf. Four clenched his teeth, remaining steadfast as he twisted the arrow, pouring his magic to power the light arrow.

Another huge burst of dark magic flew out, this time pushing out the light arrow and flung Four off the wolf. From the back of the neck, the hideous bug emerged with a fountain of black and red. As soon as the tendrils completely detached itself from the wolf, multiple light arrows found its way into the bug, eradicating it.

When the coast was clear, Four rushed over to check on Twilight who had collapsed, as did the others. 

The wolf hero looked mostly back to normal, but what worried him was that the glowing veins still remained and the red blood that was starting to slowly pool around his neck where the parasite was. He quickly rummaged through his pack and brought out a clean cloth to try and staunch the wound.

The cloth slowly turned dark red.

“Hyrule, can you do your healing spell? Potions won’t work, and we can’t change him back either until Sky and Warriors bring back the light energy that was stolen!”

Hyrule nodded grimly before getting to work, closing his eyes and mumbling under his breath. 

Four visibly let out a sigh of relief when he saw the blood had stopped leaking, but he was still worried. Did he do any permanent damage to Twilight? They won’t know unless he wakes up.

_ ‘If he ever wakes up,’ _his mind whispered to him.

He ignored it as best as he could.

“Guys! How is he doing?!”

The group who was surrounding the injured wolf looked up to see a slightly ruffled Warriors and Sky running towards him, Sky holding what seemed to be glowing balls of light with neon green markings on them in his cupped hands. The energy balls suddenly flew out of Sky’s hands and descended towards the prone wolf, making everyone back up. It circled around his head before it disappeared into him. The glowing red veins slowly turned to green before fading completely as soon as the light energy returned to its former rightful place. 

“HIs magical signature is returning to normal,” Hyrule announced, letting out a sigh of relief. “That must have been the light energy that had been stolen. When he wakes up he should be able to shift back now.”

As if on cue, they heard a low whine emitting from their wolf comrade. They watched with both trepidation and hope as they saw his eyes fluttering open.

It was back to the sapphire blue. 

Twilight slowly scanned everyone who was looking at his fellow heroes and let out a small yip.

Time slowly crouched down to pat the wolf’s head. “Hey pup, welcome back. Are you feeling alright? Are you able to change back?”

Twilight visibly closed his eyes as if to concentrate, and then he gave a nod, Four quickly released his hand from the wolf’s neck and stepped back as Twilight shifted back with black particles.

“Owwww,” a slightly pale Twilight groaned, not really moving much as he tried to reach for his neck before Four grabbed his wrist to stop him from touching his neck. 

“Careful Twilight, you don’t want to rub your wound open,” Four said softly, mindful of his other wounds as he noticed his fingertips were cold and red, most likely due to the ice arrows that had frozen him in place. He could see that Hyrule’s healing spell did a good job at patching up Twilight’s neck, but he could still see how red and raw it was. “How are you feeling?”

“Sore all over,” he let out another groan, then winced, his hand flying to the side as Time gently helped him sit up. Legend handed him a potion, which Twilight took with a grateful nod. His hands were slightly shaking, but he managed to down it.

“Guys,” he started as he gazed at everyone with a guilty look. “I’m...sorry.”

Four knew this was coming. But before he could speak up, someone beat it to him.

“For what, Twilight?”

Twilight gave Sky an incredulous look. “All of this Sky! If I had been more careful I would have never got the power of the Sols, the light energy, ripped away from me, I would haven't been stuck as a wolf and making us willingly walk into a trap! If I had been more paranoid, I would have found out about the parasite much earlier, and I wouldn’t have had to put you guys through all of this either! You guys wouldn’t have been injured! I-“

Sky calmly put a finger to Twilight’s mouth to shush him as he crouched lower to be level with Twilight.

“Do you think we really blame you? Did you have any control over the parasite? Your light energy being stolen?”

“Not really, Bu-“

“But nothing Twilight. That sorceress Cia is all to blame, not you. You even tried your best to wrestle control back from what I saw. There will be no victim-blaming alright?” Sky said in a soft but stern voice.

Twilight slowly looked up and around to see all of the heroes’ reactions. No one sported an angry look, only soft smiles and nods.

The exhausted hero gave a small smile of his own. “Thank you so much guys.”

A few chuckles ran across the group as Wild and Wind barreled into the Hero of Twilight and hugged him fiercely as a response.

Everything turned out okay in the end.


End file.
